


Pros and Cons

by L_Moonshade



Series: Altered Realities [18]
Category: Doctor Who (2005), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-17
Updated: 2015-08-17
Packaged: 2018-04-15 03:23:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4591140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/L_Moonshade/pseuds/L_Moonshade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After an invitation he has no idea what to do with, Phil has a lot of thinking to do. Luckily, he has people to talk to.<br/>Unfortunately, they're not always a lot of help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pros and Cons

Clint glanced over at the lane next to him. "You don't usually come to the shooting range to think."

Phil shrugged before firing a few shots. "I don't usually have so much to think about."

"Want to talk about it?"

Phil's jaw clenched. "No."

"Okay," Clint said, then started shooting.

He wasn't surprised when Phil took his time reloading. "Kate and Adam came over to make me dinner the other night."

"They do that on occasion. Well, they invite me over, but I'm betting your place is nicer than mine."

"Probably. I could get your housing allowance increased if you need it to move to a better location."

Clint shrugged. "It's not as bad as all that." Especially since he'd bought the building and was slowly fixing it up.

"Well, if you need to move, let me know."

"Sure thing, Boss."

They shot another couple rounds each before Phil took his time reloading again. "They asked me out."

Clint held his breath then let it out and loosed his last arrow. "Well, of course they did."

Phil paused. "What do you mean by that?"

Clint turned to his boss and friend, eyes wide in disbelief. "C'mon. You need a drink."

Half an hour later, they were seated in the back of a bar, a pitcher of beer on the table between them. "Now. What did you mean by 'of course'?"

"They flirt with you all the time, and you should see the way they look at you when they think no one can see." Then he grinned. "And by all reports, you had a pretty big crush on them when you were six."

Phil rolled his eyes, but he couldn't keep the tips of his ears from turning pink, or his mouth from quirking up at the corners. "Yes, Barton. Thank you for that embarrassing reminder."

"You know they loved it." Clint drank in silence for a moment. "You have no idea what you want to do. Do you?"

Phil sighed. "I know what I should do. I should say no."

"Why?"

"I'm their superior, a relationship like that will be accepted by almost nobody, it'll take infinitely more work than a normal one…"

"Bullshit."

Phil blinked, caught off guard. "I'm sorry?"

"Those are all bullshit reasons. There is no way the three of you will let a relationship interfere with the job and vice versa, since when do you care, and the three of you are stubborn enough that you'll put the work into it. There's only one thing you need to know to decide what your answer is. Do you want to?"

"I don't know."

Clint drained his glass then refilled it. "Well, that's what you've got to figure out. But for the record? You're good but sometimes you slip. Sometimes, you look at them the same way they look at you." He took a long drink then stood. "Now, if you'll excuse me, it looks like there's a dart game a'brewin."

Phil watched, amused, as Clint staggered over to the dartboard. He debated going home, but it would be entertaining to watch Clint hustle.

Besides. If he went home, there wouldn't be anything to distract him from thinking.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Canton stepped into the house and grabbed a beer before joining Phil and William in the living room. The room had the feeling of a serious conversation and he glanced from one to the other.

"What're we talking about?"

"Royce and Lang asked Phil out the other night," William said. "He's trying to figure out what to do about it."

Canton refrained from giving his first response ("You quit overthinking it and say yes, Moron") and leaned back. "Cons?"

"I'm their supervisor; almost no one is going to be able to accept us; a relationship between two people is difficult enough but three is exponentially harder; they'll have to go through the pain of losing me…"

"That one's theirs to decide," Canton said. "You don't get to make that decision for them."

Phil felt a twinge of guilt. He should know that, he'd given Methos the same advice when the Immortal had considered leaving SHIELD and was worried about how Kate would react. "I know."

"Good. Pros?"

Phil took a deep breath and finally said out loud something he'd known (and been trying to ignore) for a while. "I think I could love them."

"Sounds like the pro outweighs the cons to me."

William gave him a look that told Canton he wasn't pleased with that statement. "That's only one pro."

"But it's a big one. Look, Phil, love isn't logical. In this case, the pros and cons are anything but equal. If you love them, then it's worth trying. It may blow up and cause some pain, but you've got to decide if you'd rather live with the pain of losing them, or the regret of never going for something you want."

Phil gave a wry smile. "That doesn't really help."

Canton shrugged. "Can't tell you what to do. I can only give advice."

"Yeah. I need another beer. Dad?"

"Please."

Once Phil was out of the room, Canton held out his hand. "I think that's fifty you owe me."

"He all but told them to ask me out," Phil said from the other room.

"In other words, you cheated."

Canton grinned, unrepentant. "It was worth a try." His smile softened. "They said the same things about us, in case you forget," he said, voice quiet.

"I'm just afraid he's going to get hurt."

"Of course that's a possibility. It's a possibility with any relationship."

"You don't think it's more of a possibility with a relationship like that?"

"Depends on the people involved."

Phil came back to pass out the beers. "I'd tried to stop Kate, Methos, and Aunt River from going with you to the birthday party, of course, but they didn't listen. The Doctor told me it was hopeless because they were all a force of nature. If anyone is stubborn enough to make this work, it's them."

"You're no pushover, yourself."

They talked all through dinner, though less about the relationship and more about life in general. It was a good visit, as always, and Phil was feeling a bit better about things when he went home.

Once at his apartment, he stepped inside still smiling from dinner. He never got tired of seeing his fathers interact, of watching their loving relationship. As nice as it was, though, it was one of the reasons he'd only had a couple of long-term relationships. He aspired to a relationship like his fathers', and it wasn't easy to find someone to have that with.

He turned on the light as he closed and locked the door behind him, then took off his pistol and set it on the table along with his wallet, phone, and keys. From there he went into his bedroom to take off his suit and, after hanging it up, changed into sweat pants and a T-shirt. Then he found something mindless to watch and sat down to finish the rest of his paperwork. When he was done three hours later he went to bed, lamenting the fact that, again, he wasn't going to be getting enough sleep. He needed something else, he thought. He needed someone to keep him from getting so wrapped up in his work that he failed to take care of himself, someone to keep him from becoming depressed (too late) with his empty apartment, someone to remind him how to live.

It wasn't until he was drifting off that he realized he'd found all of that. All he had to do was tell them he wanted it.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks as always to Raynbowz for the beta and advice.


End file.
